Great product for "frugal" types
Written: Mar 17 '01
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Pros: Sounds great, priced right.
Cons: Not on the "cutting edge" of technology.
The Bottom Line: Great CD player for folks on a budget. It's durable, easy to operate and sounds pretty damn good.
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| HawgWyld's Full Review: RCA RP8065 5-Disc CD Changer |
I'm a cheapskate. I'll freely admit it. When it comes to consumer electronics, I'm rarely the guy who goes for the "latest" thing. Why? I work hard for my money, and I try to protect it the best I can. That "new" product may be snazzy and expensive now, but the price will go down considerably in the near future.
So, when I'm buying items such as CD players, I tend to go for a solid, reliable product at a good price. I don't care one whit if it incorporates the neatest bit of new, expensive technology. I just want the damn thing to do what I expect.
What do I expect from a CD player? I want it to have good sound and the ability to play some of my older discs that might have a scratch or two without fail. This RCA RP-8065 meets both of these requirements and it's cheap. I got it two years ago for around $80, and I've seen these priced as low as $65 to $70 recently.
Folks, this five-disc player is a tank. I've used it almost daily for the past couple of years, and it's not skipped a beat. Everyone who's had CD players have had the problem of the thing skipping and going haywire when it's gotten older, right? None of those problems have surfaced in the RCA yet. That's impressive to me as I've had other ones flake out after a year or so.
I'm also impressed with this players ability to read and play discs that are less than perfect. For example, I've got an Anthrax disc (don't laugh) from 1988, and it's developed a few small holes in it. If you were to hold that disc up to the light, you'd see about eight very, very small holes in the disc. The RCA doesn't complain about that disc -- it sounds like it always has. That disc gave the CD player I had before the RCA fits, but I kept it around and decided to use it as a "test disc" on the RCA -- the RCA passed with flying colors.
I'm also impressed with the sound out of this little unit. It's nothing earth-shattering, but it's exactly what I'd expect from a player reading a compact disc -- crystal clear bass, treble and mid-range. That's pretty much a given, I should think, but it's worth mentioning. I've seen some CD players that sounded absolutely horrible for some reason. I don't understand what electronics make a CD player sound good or bad, but the RCA certainly falls in the "good" category.
When it comes to features, this CD player has nothing that you wouldn't expect. You can program it and set it to "shuffle" so that it will play songs across the discs in the unit in a random order. It has a remote control that let's the user control about all of its features. Those are all nice, although typical, features that are easy to use. Oh, and it has a headphone jack with a volume control on it. I don't use that regularly, but I've tested it and it works.
Essentially, I use this as a unit to listen to a few CD's at a time (like right now, for instance). I pop them in, hit the play button and let it go to work. The five-disc changer is nice because I'm lazy -- I don't have to get up to change discs because the thing does it for me. I basically drug this thing home from Circuit City, hooked it to my stereo with a set of RCA jacks, plugged it up and used it. While it's not a dazzling display of high-tech stuff, it plays audio compact discs well and seems to be fairly durable. That's all I want in a CD player, so I'd say this thing is a fine product.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 80
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Epinions.com ID:
HawgWyld
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 - Top 200 |
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Member: Ethan C. Nobles
Location: Benton, Ark.
Reviews written: 1436
Trusted by: 495 members
About Me:
The oxen are slow, but the earth is patient.
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